


i wanna be next up forever (forever I'll be second in line)

by OnlyJustAMemory



Series: Time Traveler Karl [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, Immortal Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Tales From The SMP, Time Traveler Karl Jacobs, Time Travelling Karl Jacobs, Villain Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), but can be read as otherwise, i'm not good at writing intros, set after the masquerade, so it kind of just, starts, this technically hints at
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29192004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnlyJustAMemory/pseuds/OnlyJustAMemory
Summary: ("You even built this entire prison for me-”“Hang on,” Dream says, cutting him off. “You thought that this prison was built for you?”“I mean... yeah? Who else would it have been for?”)(aka Tommyinnit learns that Dream is holding more strings than he originally thought.)
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Karl Jacobs, Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs & TommyInnit
Series: Time Traveler Karl [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143218
Comments: 18
Kudos: 448





	i wanna be next up forever (forever I'll be second in line)

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired by something i saw online and my brain immediately went "must write". if it doesn't make total sense it's probably because i wrote this in a semi-rush. enjoy!

It’s Tommy’s second visit to the prison and within a minute of being in the same cell as Dream, they’re arguing. 

“Get off your high horse, you dickhead!” He shouts. “If it weren’t for me, you’d have been bored out of your mind right?”

“That’s a little big egotistical of you,” Dream snaps back.

“No it’s not! You’ve literally said that in the past!”

“I mean not those  _ exact _ words-”

“It’s what you meant though! You can’t control me like you can others, so I was a  _ challenge.  _ You even built this entire prison for me-”

“Hang on,” Dream says, cutting him off. “You thought that this prison was built for you?”

“I mean... yeah? Who else would it have been for?”

Dream laughs. It starts out relatively softly but quickly devolves into almost hysterical cackling. Tommy only stands there, feeling both embarrassed and angry simultaneously. By the time Dream manages to catch his breath again, Tommy is about ready to strangle him. 

“What are you talking about, bitch?” Tommy yells, face red.

“Oh, Tommy,” Dream practically coos. “You really thought this huge, complex,  _ inescapable  _ prison was for you? You think that you’d need  _ this much  _ security?”

“Well then who else was it for?” Tommy spits out. “Techno?”

“Nope,” Dream says, popping the ‘p’.

“Phil?”

“Try again.”

“Sapnap? Eret? Quackity?”

“Nu-uh.”

“ _ Who the fuck else is there _ ?” Tommy seethes. 

How is it that even though Dream is the one locked up, even though he has  _ nothing,  _ it still feels like he’s the one in control? 

“You think you’re the only hero on this server, Tommy. You think you’re the center of everyone’s lives, don’t you? Everything revolves around Tommyinnit, right?”

The urge to strangle him rises. He tries to suppress the anger because he knows, he  _ knows,  _ if he lashes out Dream wins, but it’s hard. After everything Dream’s done, he shouldn’t be the one still tugging on strings. 

And yet…

“That’s not true,” Tommy grounds out. 

“Is it? I mean you did automatically assume the prison was built with you in mind, no?”

“That’s different!” Tommy argues. “You wanted to put me in this prison, what else was I supposed to think?!” 

“Always about you,” Dream sings and Tommy is done. He knows that this isn’t going to go anywhere, and Dream is only playing with him. 

He refuses to fall into any of his traps again.

“Goodbye, Dream,” Tommy says. He feels proud when he sees the way Dream’s face slightly falters. 

“Wait-”

“Have fun rotting in here, prick. Glad you finally found a home.”

\--------------------------

The vines are so close to his house now. Tommy scowls upon seeing them, fully intending to break them, but as he gets closer he sees that someone else has already beaten him to it. Karl, with his vibrant colored hoodie, is hacking away angrily at them with a hoe. He’s muttering something under his breath, the only word loud enough for Tommy to hear being “masquerade”. As the teen walks closer he can see that the hoe he’s holding is on the verge of breaking.

_ How many vines did he have to break for the durability to lower that much? _

“You good, Karl?” Tommy asks. 

Karl jumps, surprised, even though Tommy hadn’t been quiet coming over. He must have really been invested in destroying the vines to have not heard him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Karl smiles at him, but it’s not at all like his usual, bright smile. He seems so much more exhausted, like the energy had been zapped straight out of him.

“I’m taking that you’re not under the egg’s influence then?”

“Ha,” Karl laughs, voice bitterer than Tommy has ever heard coming from him. “Never.”

“You sure? You’re acting a bit weird, Karl.”

“Just having an off-day.”

Even though Tommy can see Karl’s eyes aren’t tinted slightly red, he doesn’t believe him. Something’s not right... He  _ could  _ investigate and question Karl further, but…

He has a hotel to get to.

“Alright then,” Tommy says. “See you around.”

Karl nods in return and goes off, continuing to hack the veins down with a vengeance. 

Tommy opens the door to his house, mind almost immediately forgetting their interaction and focusing instead on what Dream had said.

_ Who else on the server that wasn’t Techno or Phil could be powerful enough that would warrant Dream commissioning an inescapable prison? _

With the way the prison was built, it almost made it seem like Dream was “scared” of this person… Or no, scared wasn’t the right word. Making a prison like that meant that Dream must have felt like he wouldn’t have been able to control this person… So who else could that mean?

...

No one. Dream must have just been messing with him. There was no one else on the server who even remotely fit that description.

  
  


Further down the path Karl’s hoe breaks. He pulls out another one and gets back to work. 

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments appreciated :)


End file.
